EDINBURGH FRINGE: The Beautiful Future is Coming at the Traverse Theatre****

The press release said this play was about ‘the onrushing climate apocalypse’.

So, it’s no longer about climate change or even the climate crisis. It seems we are all doomed! And after seeing Flora Wilson Brown’s production I wonder what that ‘beautiful future’ is. Heaven? It certainly isn’t Earth.

The play, in collaboration with Bristol Old Vic, explores how climate change affects people in three different time zones. In 1850s New York amateur scientist Eunice is fighting to get her theories about global warming heard, because she is a woman.

In the present day, Londoners Claire and Dan listen to news reports about flooding but, because it’s not happening to them, they don’t bother…until it does, and they do.

Then there is Malcolm and Ana, who have been stuck in a seed vault for three months, unable to leave because of the storms raging around them.

All question what the future will be like for them and their families. Should they even be bringing children into the world?

The back stories weren’t always evident, the transition between scenes didn’t always go smoothly, and Michael Salami as Dan and especially Nina Singh as Claire, could have done with projecting more. Nevertheless, this a powerful and memorable production, where the characters are holding on to hope and humanity at all odds.The Beautiful Future is Coming is on at various times until Aug 24. traverse.co.uk (1 hr 30 mins)